This is it, the day before my last exam! Been up since 8am, it is now 10.20am and my brain has already shut down.

I’m just doing some reading comprehension (lame!) I think the exam will give me a bunch of Japanese texts with some Japanese questions about said texts which I then have to answer in Japanese? Either way I’m pretty screwed… and scared! So I need to practice my reading skills, which are shocking to say the least:

All the pretty Japanese writing is tainted with my inevitable doom!

The library is dead! It’s hard to believe that this time 2 weeks ago people were actually sleeping in here. Now it’s just me and some other guy exchanging glances of worry.

So once again I need lots of luck, I might even wish myself luck because I’m grasping at straws here!

Yes, revising has turned into taking photos of my own hand in an arty fashion. I HATE KANJI. Seriously, everything about learning Japanese would be made so much easier if Japan had just thought of its own writing system. BUT NOOOOO! Damn my life.

So let’s forget about that for a while and concentrate on how my last exam went: BRILLIANTLY. Working/sleeping/living in the library finally paid off. I mean sure, I didn’t know everything, but I managed to remember quite a lot, even got a bit cocky and left early. I am actually quite looking forward to results day now (well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves!)

So the next few days will be revolving around my Kanji exam on Friday which I’m not feeling very confident about but then at least it will all be over after that. Schwing!

Right well I’m finally back! The month of coursework hell is over!!! All I have left is 2 exams and I’m FINISHED with this year!!! So this is the part where I apologise about the quite frankly crap effort I’ve been making in every other part of my life that doesn’t involve coursework:

Sorry guys 😦

So let me update you on the last month: COURSEWORK. JOB, STRESS.

That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing! Japanese seems to be going pretty well, I feel ready for Friday’s big exam. The exams are multiple choice BUT with negative marking if you get the answer wrong, intense. You better all wish me luck! So today I’m going to be mostly going over grammar points (I hate grammar!) Too many particles to understand, so I went and bought myself a super book to explain the lot to me BUT I can’t even understand the ENGLISH words (words like idiocyntasmiplosia… hnn, not exactly that but you get the idea).

It’s been a while! Unfortunately I’ve been ill and stressed, all in all it’s not been going well (eg, I’m in the library, on my own… there is nobody else in uni except me I’m sure)

BUT, it is Easter Sunday tomorrow!

Not that Easter means much to any non-Christians… though from what I hear there are many Christians in Japan so I suppose you guys get what I’m talking about?

I have been an absolute let down on the film reviewing/article writing front (sorry guys!) There are not enough hours in the day (which is exactly why I’m in the Library on my only day off.. I’m actually quite annoyed that tomorrow is Easter because it means I can’t actually do any work.)

Doing my Kanji portfolio… I say ‘doing’ though all I’ve actually done is gathered the work that I need to start, probably won’t start it for another 2 days. What I really wanted to do is photocopy pages out of the books about Japanese lesbians, but NOOOOOO, the photocopier room is locked and the security guard won’t give me any change for the other photocopier, what a jib!

I’ve got another essay to write about Emperor Hirohito and his involvement in war crimes which is proving to be quite interesting actually, currently reading Herbert Bix’s autobiography, it’s controversial (so you know it’s good!)

That’s it for me today, I promise to be back on form next week, life is dragging me down so some nice loving words would be appreciated right about now!

And today’s topic is…. Suicide in Japan. Such folly (this is obviously a joke let’s not take my idiotic humour seriosuly for this post guys.)

As per usual this is for research, more specifically for a presentation that I’m doing next week with my new friend (hello!) and some other guy… don’t know his name, I’m a bad person.

People may remember that after I posted a review on Suicide Club for JapanCinema.net I recieved a rather informative comment about suicide being a serious problem in Japan (If you don’t know what I’m on about then you obviously didn’t read my review, get a grip and read it now… Suicide Club Review)

OH MY GOD my new review is up… sorry, getting sidetracked, I’ll get back to that..

So yeah, suicide… as in all countries reasons such as depression and unemployement are main factors, but Japan also has the whole issue of social pressures; school grades, doing well in a business etc. AND THEN there’s stuff like ‘double-suicides’ (forbidden lovers and all that) and honourable suicide within war, covering pretty much all reasons why anyone would want to kill themselves, ever. A quick Googling bring up ‘suicide apartments’, the ‘suicide forest’ (Aoikigahara – the world’s second most popular suicide location. If you must know number 1 is the Golden Gate Bridge, there was a documentary made about that, I saw it and it freaked the crap outta me, you actually saw people die… I’m getting sidetracked again.) There was also apparently a rise in suicides int he area after the Fukushima disaster. So it’s all quite intense and rather disturbing from what I can see.

I haven’t looked that much into it yet and our presentation is next week so any help would be nice 🙂

Aw man, I’ve just bought a muffin with fruit in it! That’s not cool! It cost me like £2! Still gonna eat it, obviously.

Just finished my review for Japan Cinema… though I’ve left half of it at home so I can’t even send it off, frustrating! The rest of today will be spent learning Japanese? I’m in the middle of doing some sort of oral test which I haven’t actually started yet, it includes putting on an awful headset and recording yourself reciting a poem for a member of my class to then listen to and JUDGE! These are things that I do not like. (I’ve gotten muffin all into the gaps on this keyboard… I guess that’s why we’re not allowed to eat in the library!)

Possibly gonna do some work on this Gender essay? I have 2 essential books from the library for a limited time only so I might as well make the most of it!